Melonpan

A soft bun under a cookie lid scored in a grid, with the two doughs proved at different rates.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, dairy (butter), dairy (milk).

Ingredients

bun dough

• 300 g strong flour
• 40 g caster sugar
• 5 g instant yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 130 ml milk
• 40 g butter, soft

cookie dough

• 200 g plain flour
• 100 g butter, soft
• 100 g caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 0.5 teaspoon baking powder
• 100 g caster sugar, for rolling

Method

1. NO MELON IN IT. The name is the pattern, not the flavour -- a grid scored across the cookie lid. Adding melon essence makes a different bun.
2. THE COOKIE LID MUST BE CHILLED AND THE BUN MUST NOT. Warm cookie dough slumps off the sides during the prove and bakes as a puddle; a bun dough chilled with it will not rise. So they are made separately and brought together cold-on-warm at the last moment.
3. Bun dough: knead 10 minutes, butter in once the gluten is developed, 5 minutes more. Prove 1 hour.
4. Cookie dough: cream the butter and sugar, egg in, then flour and baking powder. Roll into a log, wrap, and CHILL at least 1 hour.
5. Divide both into 10. Roll each cookie piece between sheets of plastic into a disc slightly smaller than the bun.
6. Lay a cold disc over each shaped bun and press it gently down the sides -- it should cover the top two thirds and NOT reach the base. Covered to the bottom, the bun cannot rise and splits at the seam.
7. SCORE THE GRID WITH A BLUNT EDGE -- a scraper or the back of a knife -- before the sugar goes on. A sharp blade cuts through and the lines close up in the oven.
8. Roll each one in caster sugar.
9. Second prove 40 minutes, uncovered. Covered, the cloth sticks to the sugar and tears the lid off.
10. Bake at 180C for 14 to 16 minutes. The lid should be pale gold and crisp, the bun soft underneath. Cool on a rack or the base goes damp.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Japan · All recipes